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Housing rental market still weak last month

Housing rental market still weak last month

Oct 12, 2017

Ann Williams

The weakness in both private and HDB rents persisted last month, going by the latest flash data from SRX Property yesterday.

It showed that rents for condominium units and apartments slipped by 0.1 per cent in September compared with August, while HDB rents suffered a bigger 0.9 per cent month-on-month drop. In August, private rents dropped by 0.4 per cent month on month while HDB rents dipped 0.2 per cent.

In the private market, rents last month were down by 2 per cent from a year ago and 0.4 per cent in the year to date, said SRX Property. Compared with their peak in January 2013, rents are lower by 19.2 per cent.

In the HDB market, rents last month were down by 4.1 per cent from a year ago and 2.3 per cent so far this year. Compared with their peak in August 2013, HDB rents are 14.7 per cent lower.

Rental volume also dropped for both types of housing. The number of condo units and apartments rented out dropped by 12.6 per cent to 3,799 units last month from 4,345 in August. Year on year, their rental volume was 1.2 per cent lower.

The number of HDB flats rented out last month dropped by 1.6 per cent to 1,625 from 1,652 in August. Compared with the same month last year, the rental volume also decreased by 1.6 per cent.

Rents expected to stabilise next year only when supply of completed units tapers off

Thu, Oct 12, 2017

Lynette Khoo

SINGAPORE'S housing rental market stayed in the doldrums in September, going by SRX Property data, and is expected to remain subdued for the rest of the year.

Although the flash estimates showed a month-on-month uptick in rents for private non-landed homes in the prime and suburban regions last month, analysts believe that overall rents will only stabilise next year when the supply of completed units tapers off sharply.

SRX Property's flash estimates released on Wednesday showed non-landed residential rents slipping 0.1 per cent in September from the previous month, led by the 1.7 per cent drop in the city-fringe region or Rest of Central Region (RCR).

This coincided with newly completed supply coming from RCR projects such as DUO Residences, The Venue Residences and Spottiswoode Suites, some analysts say.

But rents in the Core Central Region (CCR) and the Outside Central Region (OCR) rose 0.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively in September, after their respective 0.6 per cent and one per cent fall in August.

OrangeTee's head of research and consultancy Wong Xian Yang noted that rents continued to fall due to the relatively high volume of completions this year, but the rate of decline has noticeably slowed.

"For 2017, a total of 16,544 private residential units are expected to be completed, which is around 24 per cent higher than the 10-year average of 13,319 units per annum. However, expected completions are poised to fall off sharply in 2018, with completions coming in at only 8,417 units," he said.

Amid the rental weakness of private homes, HDB flats marked a steeper rental fall of 0.9 per cent in September following a 0.2 per cent dip in August, going by SRX Property's estimates.

Lee Nai Jia, who heads research at Edmund Tie & Company, noted that HDB flat owners have been under pressure to lower their rents more as the rental gap between HDB flats and private homes has narrowed, especially in some of the areas that saw more completions.

Anecdotally, some landlords are offering incentives, such as changing some furniture and refurbishing or repainting the unit, while keeping the rent unchanged, Dr Lee added.

"The vacancy rates are expected to significantly improve next year and we expect rents of both private homes and HDB flats to bottom out by the end of 2018," he said.

SRX Property estimates that some 3,799 non-landed rental transactions were inked in September, a 12.6 per cent drop from August and a 1.2 per cent decline from September last year. An estimated 1,625 HDB flats were rented in September, representing a 1.6 per cent drop from August as well as from September 2016.

Rental transactions have been on a slide since the middle of the year. Dr Lee pointed out that rental activity tends to peak before the international school term and slides after school starts around August and September.

But beyond such seasonal reasons, ZACD Group executive director Nicholas Mak noted that the tightening of the foreign labour policy is the key reason for the reduced leasing demand. Besides policy changes, the subdued employment outlook further hinders the growth of the expatriate population here.

Singapore's total population grew by a mere 0.1 per cent to 5.61 million in the 12 months leading up to June this year - the slowest growth rate since 2003. In the 10 years before that, total population increased by an average of 2.45 per cent each year.

The non-resident population here also fell for the first time in 14 years - by 1.6 per cent to 1.65 million.

The official private residential rental index published quarterly by the Urban Redevelopment Authority has fallen for 15 straight quarters since Q3 2013, marking the longest falling streak since the index became available in 1990, Mr Mak said.

"For the whole of 2017, the private residential rental index is projected to fall by 1.5-2.5 per cent year-on-year," he said.